Western Balkans: Packaging Market Under Pressure to Adapt

The packaging market in the Western Balkans says a great deal about the region’s economic structure: it is fragmented, unevenly developed and marked by clear differences between individual countries. For Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – also referred to as the Western Balkans Six – data on packaging volumes, consumption and recycling remain incomplete.

Nevertheless, an informative picture emerges: among these six Western Balkan countries, Serbia is the most important industrial location – and this also applies to packaging. With its 6.6 million inhabitants, it is the most populous of the six. It is followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with around 3.2 million inhabitants, Albania with 2.8 million, Kosovo with 1.9 million, North Macedonia with 1.8 million and Montenegro with 0.6 million. The World Bank expects a subdued but gradually improving economic outlook for the six economies: the growth forecast for 2026 has been lowered to 2.8 per cent, while growth is expected to reach 3.2 per cent again in 2027.

Serbia as a regional packaging hub

The Serbian packaging market is growing steadily, driven above all by paper and plastics processing. ReportLinker estimates that Serbia’s plastic packaging exports will rise from 203 million US dollars in 2021 to 243 million US dollars in 2026; this corresponds to average annual growth of 3.1 per cent. Serbian shipments go not only to neighbouring countries, but also to EU markets. For plastic boxes, OEC names Germany, Poland and Hungary among the key destination markets for 2024. For the Western Balkans itself, Serbia is a central supplier. Metal packaging in the region is visible mainly through beverage cans, some of which are also produced locally. With Ball, one of the leading beverage can manufacturers has operated an important production site for aluminium beverage cans in Belgrade/Zemun since the mid-2000s.

Export niches, import dependence and data gaps

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a smaller market, but shows notable export strength in individual product groups. According to OEC data, in 2024 the country exported goods worth 108 million US dollars in the OEC product category “plastic lids” and goods worth 28.6 million US dollars in the category “plastic boxes”.

North Macedonia has positioned itself particularly in the field of pharmaceutical primary packaging. Important domestic players in the pharmaceutical sector include Alkaloid AD Skopje and Replek. Gerresheimer opened a plant in Skopje in 2021 for plastic systems for the pharmaceutical industry.

Albania and Montenegro, by contrast, remain significantly smaller and more dependent on imports. In 2024, Albania imported plastic packaging worth around 1.99 million US dollars, while exports amounted to just 10,960 US dollars in the category of plastic articles for the conveyance or packing of goods, excluding bottles, sacks, bags and closures. Under the same customs category, Montenegro imported goods worth 1.41 million US dollars in 2024 and exported only 19,620 US dollars. For glass bottles, too, the country is clearly a demand market, with imports of 15.3 million US dollars.

For Kosovo, the situation is more difficult to assess. Regulation is in motion, but gaps in publicly visible and comparable trade statistics for packaging products remain larger than in the other five countries.

Increasing European integration

As the Western Balkan countries become more closely integrated economically with the European Union, pressure is also increasing on the region’s packaging industry to comply with EU standards such as the Waste Framework Directive, extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). For the Western Balkans Six, the introduction of the PPWR represents a major alignment task. According to a regional EPR policy brief, the EU market is the most important export destination for the Western Balkan countries; the report cites a share of 77.8 per cent of exports in 2024. Compliance with packaging requirements is therefore becoming a central factor for continued market access.

The biggest structural bottleneck does not lie in regulation alone. Practical collection and recovery also still have considerable room for improvement. Food packaging accounts for a significant share of municipal waste in the Western Balkans Six. This waste stream comprises plastics, aluminium, paper and board as well as glass, and is still often disposed of together with mixed waste. This severely restricts material recovery and reduces the availability of valuable secondary raw materials.

Underdeveloped and unevenly expanded recycling infrastructure keeps recycling rates low across all materials. Facilities remain focused on plastics, while paper and glass recycling systems are still commercially fragile. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) identifies the development of innovative approaches to reducing plastic waste in the Western Balkans as an important field of action.

North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina currently also have no glass recycling facilities capable of producing end products. According to GIZ, separate collection of waste glass packaging at local level has only recently begun in parts of the region. Only a small number of municipal utility companies have the required infrastructure.

Growth, but with marked differences

The packaging market in the Western Balkans is likely to continue growing, but it remains highly fragmented. Serbia occupies a special position as an industrial packaging hub, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia have individual export and investment focal points, while Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo remain more strongly shaped by imports.